Audio:

radio jingle

music break Billy Idol - Piano Man

Good morning listeners. As always this is Lemuel Huppe at Desert Waves. This morning I started with a song I have been listening to a lot recently, and has really got me thinking. It’s a song about a group of people brought together by a common need, a need to step out of their lives for a few hours and connect with something that is more than themselves. Does that sound familiar? I started thinking about you listeners. A strange and wonderful group of people who probably never would have known each other under normal circumstances. And then I got an idea. This time and the next I will choose and play songs about you, my listeners. Who knows, maybe you’ll find them illuminating? We might as well go in alphabetical order. So let’s start with the As.

music break How to Destroy Angels - The Space In Between

ad break:
Are you ready for your life to change this November?
After November 25th nothing will be the same.
We’re telling you three times. Everything will change November 25th.

music break Black Sabbath - God is Dead

You know listeners, since I’ve been learning so much about you over the years I think it’s only fair I tell you a little bit about my life and how I ended up here at Desert Waves. I used to be a regular Joe working in a big city law firm on the West Coast. The only time I ever got to fully relax and be myself was the time I took off to go to Burning Man every year. Then one year on my journey back after the festival, I was trying to find something on the radio to while away the long drive back. Mostly all I got was static but after a while I picked up the gentle, melodious sound of a banjo underneath all the noise and I felt…compelled to drive until the signal became stronger, the music clearer, and eventually I wound up here, at this little station, where I found old Hunter, who you might know from our evening show, plucking away in the recording booth.

music break Little Lies - Fleetwood Mac, Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime

‘Ah Lemuel, where is here’ I hear you asking. Well listeners our town is so small you’d never find it in any maps. We only have a population of 51. But we have our radio station, and the convenience store is always stocked and the diner always bustling. Anyway, it turns out one of the DJs had recently passed and, having never missed a broadcast, they needed a replacement. Don’t ask me why, but I knew, in that moment, that I had found my purpose in life. I made my first broadcast the very next morning and have been here ever since. After a couple of years our afternoon broadcaster moved on and Carleen joined us, giving us the lineup you know today. What more can I tell you about our little town. Well, a few miles out is a research facility that we think is studying weather patterns in the area. They’re always launching strange balloons and craft into the sky. Sometimes they hover over the town for days. The scientists who work there are pretty friendly though. They often come into town just to say ‘Hi’.

music break Lana Del Ray - Born to Die, Tom Waits - What’s He Building In There?

We’ve had a couple more poems submitted listeners. You might remember I read one by Castor last week, well they have submitted another and it’s just as good as the first. You didn’t make it easy for me Castor, but I got there in the end! Here it is:

OZYMANDIAS, by Castor Sutherland (resident at the Four Aces Motel): I took a hammer to a motel wall Beyond it, found a dry and barren land, A bleak and endless plain of greyish sand Marred only by some previous traveller's scrawl The scrawl, inscribed in cursive with a stick (or some such tool; the work was rather crude) Was written backwards - quite the clever trick. Its author must have known that he was screwed. The words were odd - their meaning was obscure: “My name is Castor Sutherland (motel guest): I've found the truth; you're welcome to the rest.” The rest, it seemed, had vanished from the floor. But as I watched, the guest's last couplet faded. The wind dissolved the cursive scrawl unaided.

And our second poem is from a very dear friend and listener, Ms Sophie Young, who apparently had a deal with Castor that she would submit a poem if he did. What a lovely idea! I will read it after our next music break.

music break Devo-Mechanical Man, Oingo Boingo - Weird Science

I am the sand
I slip through your fingers
I am the wind
I steal your breath
I am the heat
I twist your vision
I am the dry
I crack your skin
I am the wildlife
I await your death
I am the desert
Vast and cruel

And now for Sophie’s delightful poem:

There once was a lovely cream bun.
That was left out too long in the sun.
It went rather squishy,
And smelt strangely fishy,
And eating it wasn’t so fun!

Ah Sophie you are always a breath of fresh air. Don’t worry I’m thinking about songs for you and your co-workers for next time. I won’t leave you out.

music break Judas Priest - Electric Eye, Donovan - Atlantis

news: Live from the streets of New York, it’s time for Star Watch! Tragic accident or the best publicity stunt ever? That’s what people are asking tonight after the apparent death of Nightshade Glade director Lucy McDonald. Lucy, and her plus one Dimitri Anders (don’t worry ladies they weren’t an item), attended the Have a Heart charity Gala hosted by Marina Beaumont this evening. Everything seemed to be normal until the up and coming director had to dodge out of the way of a falling piano only to choke on the olive in her martini a second later. Now…obviously this is a terrible loss to the film industry unless it was all a big act! Her body was taken to a morgue downtown but I have just discovered that it is missing and the doctors don’t know where it’s gone. Sounds a bit spooky huh, and we know that Dominos will be all about this kind of spooky shit. So could we be seeing her raised from the dead in a couple of days? Keep watching my channel to find out! Oh and if you’re of the creeper losers stealing my show I’m totally onto you and my lawyersStar Watch is not affiliated with or aware of Desert Waves.

Sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever move on from this place. I’ve lived here for almost 6 years and I’ve never felt more at home. Everyone here feels that way. I’ve never heard of anyone leaving. Sure we have visitors come and go, but the residents, we’re in it for the long term. It’s a perfect place to raise a family, or to retire. If you like the quiet life. You’re always welcome to visit me listeners, if you can find us that is. I can take you out to see all the sites, the Red Rock, the perimeter fence, the columns, the caves and the grey cats that live in them. There’s plenty to see, even if there’s not much to do.

music break Simon and Garfunkel - The Boxer , Coldplay - Spies

So what do you think so far, listeners. Have I got you right or am I way off base? Why not get in touch and let me know? Next time we’re starting off at L so we’re already more than half-way through. If there is someone important in your life you’d like me to pick a song for as a special surprise let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

music break Queen - Don’t Stop Me Now